Kanye West

Rants About Paparazzi

'I'm Not a Celebrity'

5/16/2013 7:00 AM PDT BY TMZ STAFF

Kanye West says he's a "terrible, terrible, terrible celebrity" ... who sees the paparazzi as a distraction from making "real" music ... and last night, he bitched about it for a solid 3-and-a-half minutes.

West was on stage during a performance in NYC when he went on one of his trademark rants -- this time, he put the paps in his crosshairs.

He complained about the attention ... he complained about people wanting to take his photo ... though he never specifically talked about his run-in with a parking sign last week.

West also said he refuses to mock his rocky relationship with the paps when he appears on "SNL" this weekend because "it's not a joke."

Kanye also never mentioned his baby mama Kim Kardashian during the rant -- interesting considering she's a pro at handling the paps and has masterfully used the snappers to turbocharge her career.